Young Australian Art and Writers' Awards

There's something wonderful about watching people receive an award they've striven for, and especially when the recipients are kids and young adults. The recipients of last night's Children's Charity Network Awards were deservedly proud and excited: the standard of both writing and visual art was extremely high –  it was incredible to realise just how young the winners were, after seeing the quality of their work.

Congratulations to Paul Collins and Meredith Costain, and all the other Ambassadors, for a night that was obviously the culmination of a great year of promoting literacy around the country.

The delightful Susannne Gervaise and me;  Di Bates engrossed in one of the winning stories

Welcome to the world, Buster!

Shame, shame, shame! Between deadlines and life, I missed celebrating my new baby's birthday: MISSING! A Cat Called Buster was published on November 8. Buster is the second in the Rainbow Street Animal Shelter series, for USA and Canada. Like LOST! A Dog Called Bear, it was illustrated by Susan Boase – and I'm happy to say that they have both been Junior Library Guild Selections.

He's rather gorgeous, isn't he? (Sorry, Buster, I know you'd hate to be called gorgeous - but your cover is.)

Buster isn’t fluffy or pretty like other cats—he’s a crazy orange cat with attitude. And Mr. Larsen is the exact right person for him. Every morning Buster and Mr. Larsen sit on their porch in the sun, and every morning Josh sees them when he walks to school.

When Mr. Larsen goes to the hospital and Buster goes missing, Josh and his family look for that crazy cat everywhere. But if Buster turns up, Rainbow Street Animal Shelter will have to help him find another home.

That’s when Josh and his family realize that—sometimes—life can choose a pet for you.

For all secondary and primary teachers, librarians and those interested in promoting literacy: there's a professional development seminar this Saturday at the RACV club in Melbourne, designed to inform and inspire! 

Maybe I'll see you at the cocktail party afterwards? 

SCHEDULE

9.00 - 9.45 Registration, tea and coffee on arrival

9.45 - 10.00 Welcome and Introduction: Susan Halliday

10.00 - 10.45 Keynote Address, Reading Into the Future

Paul Collins, Ford Street Publishing

10.45 – 11.15 Susanne Gervay & Dianne Bates – Panel

Discussion issues-based novels

Moderator: Paul Collins

11.15 – 11.45 MORNING TEA BREAK

11.45 – 12.30 Michael Salmon: Illustration techniques for school

and library.

12.30 – 1.15 Meredith Costain: Creating picture books with

students

1.15 – 2.15 LUNCH BREAK

2.15 – 3.00 Tony Thompson: VCE Texts/Primary Texts

3.00 – 3.45 Panel Discussion – Sports Books for Boys

Phil Kettle and Michael Panckridge: Moderator

Michael Hyde

3.45 – 4.15 Gabrielle Wang: Discusses the experience of Race

and Culture

4.15 – 4.30 Summary, prizes and close

4.30 – 5.00 Book sales and signings

OPTIONAL – You will be invited as our Guest to us for:

5.00 -.600 Happy hour cocktails in the Gallery Room, also

Story-telling by Jackie Kerin

6.30 – 7.00 Canapés in the Grand Ballroom

7.00 – 9.30 Dinner and Presentation of the Young Australian

Art & Writers Awards

(Your table will be hosted by a leading children’s

Author/Illustrator)

Wendy Orr on How Writers Work | Gabrielle Wang

Gabrielle Wang, as well as being a great writer for kids in her own right, is running a series of guest blogs on how different writers write. Go have a look !

Wendy Orr on How Writers Work | Gabrielle Wang

How did you got your first book published?
I made a decision to write seriously – for publication – at the beginning of 1986. I experimented with all sorts of things that year, including Mills & Boon, arrogantly supposing that they would be easy. After all, I’d read a chapter of one when I was babysitting, several years earlier After the rejection of my first 3 sample chapters, I did deign to read five complete romances, but still found it difficult to stick to their formula without irony, and their next rejection letter told me that I did not have ’the magic required for a Mills & Boon romance.” So I decided to stick to writing things I want to write – a resolve that has stood me in good stead.
In November that year I saw an Ashton Scholastic competition for a picture book text. I’d never realised that one could write a picture book text without doing, or organising, the art. My children were still picture book age, and I also used them at work, so as well as loving the genre, I was used to the rhythm and form. I wrote Amanda’s Dinosaur which shared first place and was published in 1988, after I’d rewritten the ending. I think it stayed in print till about 2005, here and in the USA and Canada.
However my Scholastic editor left shortly after takingAmanda’s Dinosaur, and I had about 18 months of rejection letters after that, as well as having a reading scheme accept about 10 books – and return them all when the managing editor was replaced. (In the end they requested and published three of the ten, but it was a very unpleasant experience.) Then I sent The Tin Can Puppy to HarperCollins, where it was read and accepted by my first Scholastic editor! I published eight books with them, including two CBC shortlisted titles:Leaving it to You, and Ark in the Park, which won in 1995.

Did you have a mentor?
The good part about the disastrous reading scheme was that I worked with a couple of excellent editors, who were extremely supportive as well as knowledgeable – I often felt it was a wonderful apprenticeship, and my grief over their being fired was even worse than having the books rejected.
I’ve been writing full time since 1991, and although that decision was forced on me because of catastrophic injuries from a car accident (the one on which I based Peeling the Onion) I was lucky that it was also the first year I’d made something approaching an income from my part time writing. I was also lucky that I’d started a new book the morning of the accident, so I had something to work on for the first two difficult years of recovery. Now I can’t imagine working outside as well as writing.
What is your writing routine?
I usually read my emails before breakfast, at about 7 am, and answer anything urgent from the east coast of the US or Canada before people leave offices for the night. I do a couple more after breakfast, check twitter & facebook, then walk the dog. Then I finish tidying up urgent emails, drag readers’ letters into a folder for the end of the week, have a stretch/put on a load of washing etc, and then start writing properly. I have quick break for lunch and write till about 4, when I walk the dog again, then work till 6.
Unless I have a deadline for line edits or proof reading, I don’t work in the evening – my creative juices are done for the day! On the weekends I answer readers letters and do admin tasks (that’s a new addition – I’ve been very bad at allocating time for the business side of writing.)

After many years of writing on odd desks in odd spaces, I now have a purpose-built desk and office – and I absolutely love them. They don’t improve my writing efficiency, but they make me happy.
What are your recent publications?
Raven’s Mountain came out in Australia in February this year, and will be released in Canada in February 2012.

LOST! A Dog Called Bear was published in the US in July. It is the first of six books in the Rainbow Street Animal Shelter series; MISSING! A Cat Called Buster will be out in November. In Australia, all six stories will be published in one volume:Rainbow Street Pets, next June.

Writing and Tears

Book Review – Raven’s Mountain by Wendy Orr | Reading Upside Down

A very nice review by Susan Whelan, who confesses to shedding a tear near the end. I have to admit that I shed a tear about there too, when I was reading the proofs for the Canadian edition, which will be called Facing the Mountain. (I know I wrote it, I know what happens... but I do care about these people and emotion gets me every time!)